Google Buys Developer of 'Snapseed', Apple's 2011 iPad App of the Year

According to The Verge, Google is acquiring Nik Software, the developer behind a number of different photography applications. Their biggest app, however, is Snapseed -- an Instagram-like iOS photography app that was named Apple's 2011 iPad App of the Year.

Snapseed has more than 9 million users on the iPhone and iPad, and the company is working on a version for Android devices as well. From Nik's blog post announcing the acquisition:

Quote:

We are pleased to announce that Google has acquired Nik Software. For nearly 17 years, we've been guided by our motto, "photography first", as we worked to build world class digital image editing tools. We've always aspired to share our passion for photography with everyone, and with Google's support we hope to be able to help many millions more people create awesome pictures.

We're incredibly grateful for all of your support and hope you'll join us on the next phase of our journey as part of Google.

All our best!

The Nik Software Team

Snapseed is available on the iPhone and iPad as a universal app for $4.99, and on the Mac for $19.99.

Their biggest app, however, is Snapseed -- an Instagram-like iOS photography app that was named Apple's 2011 iPad App of the Year.

Snapseed, as far as MacRumors concerns, might be "big" but definitely not on the top 3 list of what built Nik's reputation in digital photography. They are most famous for their photoshop plugins. Also Nikon's Capture NX is made by Nik Software.

Well I was on the fence about buying the Mac version as well, but now (with what happened to Sparrow) I'll buy it right away before Google has a chance to pull it from the Appstore. I REALLY hope they don't though. Yes, I can do a lot of the same things in Aperture and Pixelmator, but nowhere near as quickly. Please Google don't kill this one too!!

Snapseed, as far as MacRumors concerns, might be "big" but definitely not on the top 3 list of what built Nik's reputation in digital photography. They are most famous for their photoshop plugins. Also Nikon's Capture NX is made by Nik Software.

Also their Aperture plugins which utilize the same Selective Adjust UI (called U Point in their pro plugins). I really hope Nik keeps that feature and just licenses it to Google to use with Snapseed. I will eventually get those pro plugins, but for $20 and little (if any) quality loss it's a no brainer. Even for the pros.

First Sparrow, now Snapseed, I guess if Google wants to complete their aquisition of my favorite apps, Reeder is next.

Joking aside, the interesting thing here is that until they made Snapseed, Nik's business was entirely in the high-end editing market, selling various filter plug-in packages for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, etc.

I also think it's kind of wierd how the Verge positions this as a thing to help Google+ compete with the Facebook/Instagram combo. Facebook didn't buy Instagram because it was a great photo editing app, they bought it because it was an extremely successful social network that was challenging it in the area of photo sharing. I don't think a nice photo editing interface is the thing standing between Google+ and more photo sharing users.

To me it seems more like Google is just trying to aquire more mobile app development talent. I dunno.

First Sparrow, now Snapseed, I guess if Google wants to complete their aquisition of my favorite apps, Reeder is next.

Joking aside, the interesting thing here is that until they made Snapseed, Nik's business was entirely in the high-end editing market, selling various filter plug-in packages for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, etc.

I also think it's kind of wierd how the Verge positions this as a thing to help Google+ compete with the Facebook/Instagram combo. Facebook didn't buy Instagram because it was a great photo editing app, they bought it because it was an extremely successful social network that was challenging it in the area of photo sharing. I don't think a nice photo editing interface is the thing standing between Google+ and more photo sharing users.

To me it seems more like Google is just trying to aquire more mobile app development talent. I dunno.

Just realized that Google bought all of Nik. Awww crap! Now I'll need to drop $299.99 for the "Complete Collection" while I still can!